{"id":7922,"date":"2026-05-13T16:59:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=7922"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:59:19","slug":"chelsea-hold-talks-with-alonso-as-candidates-contacted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=7922","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea &#8216;hold talks&#8217; with Alonso as candidates contacted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_65\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong>Chelsea have reportedly \u201cheld initial talks\u201d with Xabi Alonso over potentially becoming their next manager. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 44-year-old is available after parting ways with Real Madrid in January, just seven months after signing a three-year contract last summer.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues are conducting their search for a new head coach after sacking Liam Rosenior last month following a series of disappointing results.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Chelsea \u2018hold talks\u2019 with Alonso as candidates contacted<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>According to The Times, preliminary talks have been \u201ccautiously encouraging\u201d, but Chelsea are still at an \u201cearly stage\u201d of the process. It is said they are \u201cnot close to agreeing a deal with a preferred candidate\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The report adds that the west London outfit have also made contact with outgoing Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola and Fulham manager Marco Silva, whose contract expires at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Former Chelsea defender Filipe Luis has been \u201cdiscussed internally\u201d as a possibility and there is another mystery candidate on their shortlist.<\/p>\n<p>Alonso has been linked with taking the reins at Liverpool, with whom he played for five years, although reports suggest they are likely to stick with Arne Slot after guiding the club to UEFA Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n<p>The 44-year-old began his coaching career with Real Sociedad\u2019s B team before taking his first senior role at Bayer Leverkusen in 2022. He enjoyed a successful three-year stint with the German outfit, going unbeaten domestically in his second season to win the Bundesliga and German Cup double. Leverkusen also reached the UEFA Europa League final, which they lost to Atalanta in Dublin.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read \u2013\u00a0Chelsea break remarkable running stat in Liverpool draw<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>See Also \u2013\u00a0Premier League Awards: Has VAR handed Arsenal the title?<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Follow the Football Faithful on Social Media:<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Facebook\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram\u00a0| <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootyFaithful_\">Twitter<\/a> | YouTube | TikTok<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea have reportedly \u201cheld initial talks\u201d with Xabi Alonso over potentially becoming their next manager&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}